“New York is a unique place,” said Bob Raissman, a sports media critic for the New York Daily News, about fans’ appetite for sports talk.  “What they want to hear and talk about today is what happened to the Mets yesterday.”

WFAN has perfected that local angle after 18 years.  But ESPN is still trying to find the right recipe for success.  Critics say the station is too dependent on nationally-syndicated programming broadcast on the ESPN national radio network and that it alienates parochial New York sports fans. 

Local issues are what fuels sports radio in New York, said public relations manager John Cirillo.  “[Fans] want to vent on what’s wrong and talk with pride about what’s right,” he said.  “The New York fans, because they have two teams in almost every sport, have built-in rivalries that other cities don’t have.”

At ESPN, general manager Mike Thompson brushed off the criticism and said he is building a lineup of personalities whom New Yorkers will want to hear.  “Good radio is good radio,” he said.  “The job of radio is to keep people listening when there’s nothing happening.  We need to be full service and full time so listeners spend all day with us.  We don’t want to be there just when people want their sports fix.”

Ironically, ESPN is following the same path as WFAN when it started in 1987 on the same frequency ESPN now is located – 1050 AM.  The nascent WFAN broadcast nationally-syndicated shows and gradually improved and added local programming. 

“I have great respect for what ESPN is trying to do,” said Ed Randall, the host of Talking Baseball, which airs Sunday mornings on WFAN.  Randall is a veteran of New York sports radio who worked at both stations in their opening years, and knows that ESPN’s success will depend on combining both luck and talent with patience.  “It’s the perfect storm of bad things.  It’s a bad signal; it’s national programming; it’s people who don’t sound like us.”

Local hosts and local talk are the key ingredients to New York sports radio, industry analysts said.  “You have to cater to the New York sports fan,” said Raissman.  “You can’t concentrate on New York when you’re national.” 

So even if the Shaq-Kobe feud is news nationally, New Yorkers are going to want to talk about the how they Jets managed to lose in overtime yesterday.  Roy Williams leaves Kansas to coach at North Carolina?  New Yorkers aren’t interested.  Let’s talk about the Yankees blowout loss to the Red Sox instead.

“Tip O’Neill said that ‘all politics is local,’” Randall said.  “I think all sports radio is local.”